Using the zoom was very useful in learning and developing my street photography style though. 28mm can give you also fantastic frames with far subjects. Another great photographer using wide angle lens was Constantine Manos. With regards to your comments about my sample photos your analysis of ‘point and shoot’ feel is very fair, but my results shouldn’t necessarily put anyone off practicing and using a 28mm lens. A perfect normal is 42 and that legth I use when I shoot film and I must admit that I love that focal length more and moore and for me it works really great in street to. She is known for her botanical photography, industrial landscapes and nudes. Beside the consideration about who is using or used a 28mm lens, my recommendation to try to work with this lens is especially for aethetics reason that should interest you as a photographer of our times. No matter how fantastic an autofocus system is, it (currently at least) cannot know exactly the point in the frame in advance where I want to focus for any given shot. You will discover how much invisible you can become with a lens like this. Yes, you captured the person you wanted to shoot, but that’s about it. I’m trying to think of movies and TV shows I’ve seen that use a very obviously wide lens (ie 28mm in ‘full frame’ still camera terms) – I reckon The Sopranos is probably one, there are some street shots in that outside the diner where the lens seems super wide! The exceptional street photography masters Garry Winogrand and Eugene Richards are just two street photography masters who have been know to wield a 28mm lens out on the streets. Often we are working in crowded places where we can take a picture very close to our subjects. I sold that one…). But you will see after you get familiar that this lens is fantastic to create great street photography. Damn thanks Thomas! That said though, it isn’t for everyone and we all have our favourite tools and combinations! Don’t worry at all if when you start with this lens you are not able to get close to your subjects. When I was researching I think I got a little confused about the whole super 35mm frame thing and exactly what it meant for the relative lens focal length so thanks for clearing it up. Small and compact, sharp and a very good contrast. often I need to raise my camera in front of my subject at the last moment in order to get a candid shot…I need to be fast and very close to my subject. Which 28 mm lens do you use ? Great street photographers get amazing results with this focal length. Street photography is more about candid shooting and you need to keep some kind of distance to frame the shot well, hence a longer focal length is better. thanks a lot. http://www.monroegallery.com/photographers/display/id/72. Nice post, as you know I shoot with XPro1 and XF18/2.0R and that lens is fantastic and eith cropfactor become a 27. Great piece by the way Digby. Regular readers of Street Hunters will probably have seen several of our past posts about the different lenses you can use for street photography. By now Im researching about lenses that help me get the look I want (expressive and spontaneous) So im deciding between 35mm and 50mm but now im confused with the look of 28mm… Please can you give and advice? Use that for consert and theatre photo. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); tips for ultra wide angle street photography, shots from movies in my street photography, Jon Luvelli's work to be permanently exhibited by the Walters-Boone Historical Museum, Review of the Moonlabs Tiny Flash (pre-production unit), StreetHunters Bookshelf: Street Sweeper Magazine, Inside Bill Palmer’s Camera Bag – Bag No.194, The importance of choosing a background for your shots. The Afghan Girl is one of the most recognizable images in the Western world within the last hundred years when it appeared on National Geographic in 1985. I hope to be trying out an Olympus OM 28mm f/2.8 on an OM-2N film SLR sometime in the future and I’ll write about my experiences with that too! Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. What your may not know is that 28mm is one of the most commonly used focal lengths in cinema. Arbus was an American photographer who is nowadays widely known for her portrayal of New Yorkers in the 1950s and the 1960s. The exceptional street photography masters Garry Winogrand and Eugene Richards are just two street photography masters who have been know to wield a 28mm lens out on the streets. The 28 definitely sucks the viewer in to the scene. To get a good shot, I would have to go very (uncomfortably) close. It’s certainly wide, but not so wide that it distorts images. I simply cannot believe how easy it is to shoot street with a 28mm lens. Do it takes a bit getting used? A 28mm lens allows you to dissemble your intentions. When you start to use a 28mm lens in the streets, especially if you are used to use a 35mm lens (don’t even consider a 50mm, for me is already a telephoto) is not that easy… The problem is when you start to use a lens like a 28mm, considered a wide angle lens, your subjects will appear very far if because you need to get familiar with the wide angle. ”. You know: as a street photographer I worked with 24mm lens (the starting focal range of Panasonic LX3) but I am devoted especially to 35mm (36mm to be exact on my Leica X2) and the 28mm lens with my Ricoh GRD IV. Another important thing to remember: If you are consistent in your stylistic approach and pay attention when you photograph a scene with a specific lens you will see you pretty much are standing the same general distance from it. That being said, the amount of in-focus or out-of-focus objects will be greater with a 28mm lens, because more objects are in view. Any lens that forces you to get close to your subject to stop them just being a little speck in the frame is onto a winner for me, and 28mm certainly does this! It taught me that for my needs, 35mm wasn’t quite wide enough, and I greatly appreciated having the extra wideness when I wanted it. Now you just need to take a lot of pictures, without fear to make errors. Cunningham’s early work consisted of soft focus and blurred imagery. The point of view is fundamental in order to get exagerations of the perspective. Question yourself why photographers like Garry Winogrand (favored 2 M4s mounted with 28mm lenses) and Bruce Gilden choose this focal range. I’ve greatly enjoyed shooting a 16-35mm zoom on the streets too, but this was very big and heavy. But you will find a lot of street photographers using a 28mm. There’s none of that shock horror corridor telescope effect you get with longer focal lengths! Thank you, Digby. (The 24mm IS was a disappointment though. 28mm on “full frame” is not cinematic. Just a quick comment on “28mm Is Cinematic”. Hi Angel! There were three eldery ladies sitting by a table chatting and I wanted to take a candid picture of them, with a manual, mechanical film SLR and a 28mm. Thanks for your comment Thomas! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Better than the 24 mm 2.8 and the 28mm 1.8. i am a young freelancer from Venezuela, by now im living in Perú and wanted to know your opinion of my work at https://mehdia.site where I want to tell the histories of Venezuelans working on streets and street/landscapes photos. Cunningham was also a member of the California-based Group f/64. Yes, I’m talking about 28mm in full frame (35mm) terms. You need to get close with this focal length, but at the same time it doesn’t render all your subjects as grotesquely distorted caricatures. Yes I was writing about my experiences with shooting around 28mm with both my Canon zoom and then the Fuji XF18 which seems to fall around the 27-28mm range. Just try the 28mm, you can hate this focal lenght or completely fall in love with. I see lots of his shots are characterised by a wide and ultra-wide perspective, so I’d guess perhaps around a 28mm or wider for some photos. It is a matter of fractions of a second. Let us know in the comments below! I can hear you: Henri Cartier-Bresson, the father of street photography, used a 50mm lens…but I would to reply: Henri Cartier- Bresson was not a street photographer (he was a reporter) and the approach of Bresson was considerably different: I would say the most of street photographers today are close to Winogrand and Gilden, because we are more encounter photographers, difficult to think a street photographer today is waiting for 4 hours in a place to apture the decisive moment. Read on for more…, I’ve said before that I’ve enjoyed using a 50mm prime lens for street photography because I liked the compact size (many 50mm lenses are very small because they offer such a normal perspective and require fewer pieces of complex glass). Choosing the best lens for your street photography is an agonising decision, because they all have their strengths, weaknesses and compromises. As I said you need to get very close to your subjects, but widest lens would be feel excessively their presence…so the 28mm focal lenght is the great choice for a modern street photographer. Hallo mate! These gave a mystery to the photographed figure. I’ve outlined several of the reasons why I’m currently relishing using a 28mm lens for my street photography, and I feel like it’s a focal length I want to settle with for a good while now and really and truly learn the ropes with. You can fit a lot into a frame (e.g. Erotica/Nude and Street Style Fashion Photography Workshops, Online Documentary Street Photography Workshops, Inside Oaxaca Social Documentary Photo Workshop, UMBRIA LANDSCAPE SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP, CDMX Individual Documentary Street Workshop, Why you need to have a 28mm lens for Street Photography, Pablo abreu on the new THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHER NOTEBOOK issue, Subscribe to the newsletter (special giveaway). Although my lens came with a 25mm viewfinder, I seldom use this as my camera is more ‘pocketable’ without this item atop the body. I enjoyed reading this article, but I feel that not all the information is accurate. This all depends on the photographer and what they are comfortable with. I use the Voigt 28mm for both landscapes and for street photography. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I hope with lots and lots of practice I can get it working to my advantage. I had a situation yesterday where I was in a beautiful bookshop. It’s found popular use with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, and Terrence Malick to name but a few. Words, 28mm, you captured the person you wanted to shoot, but not so wide that distorts. Using wide angle lens was Constantine Manos your style shooting a 16-35mm zoom on the backdrop and obtaining a picture. Close to your subjects, but I really like there ’ s popular! 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